‘Acting’ No Longer: Feola Now Pottsgrove Superintendent

With Board of School Directors’ President Scott Fulmer proclaiming he and his colleagues were “here to remove an interim tag,” board members unanimously voted to promote Feola to the position of superintendent only 10 weeks after she received the job on a trial basis. The “acting” preface to her title has been eliminated.

Six of the board’s nine members voted. Directors Michael Neiffer and Jodi Adams were absent; director Patti Grimm arrived after the issue was decided. The board, and audience members comprised primarily of other school administrators who witnessed the event in the district office conference room on Kauffman Road, applauded.

Feola was given a five-year contract that became effective Tuesday and will run through June 31, 2017. She earns a starting salary of $169,500 as chief operating officer for the district’s $59 million “business” of educating children. Her predecessor, former Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis, earned $170,314 when he retired in September (2012) and took a position with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown PA.

Future raises – “adjustments,” as Fulmer referred to them – reportedly will be based on merit and are not automatic. A variety of Feola’s fringe benefits also are spelled out in the contract.

Fulmer previously said board members felt comfortable with and confident in Feola’s leadership, and felt little need to conduct an outside search for superintendent candidates. “She already knows the district so well,” Fulmer said last week.

After the public portion of the board’s meeting ended, Fulmer announced that directors and the “new” superintendent would conduct an executive session on personnel items.